Why can YouTube not play in the background?

Spotify and Rdio are usually great for streaming music. But sometimes the fastest way to find and play a track is via YouTube. Unfortunately, using the dedicated app on your phone or tablet also means you cant do anything else while listening to music and podcasts.

Background streaming was supposed to make its way into the YouTube app last year. But as of February, theres still no sign of it. And with Google launching its All Access streaming service late last year, it doesnt look like it ever will.

While Android users are apparently still out of luck*, those who own an iPhone and the iPad with iOS 7 can use a fairly easy workaround. First, ditch the standalone YouTube app. Instead, open the browser version of whatever YouTube video you want you can use Safari or Chrome and hit play. Once it starts playing, exit the browser by pressing the home button. This will cut off the sound. To start it again, swipe up from the bottom of the screen to bring up Control Center. In the space where you can usually see the name of the iOS or Spotify music track playing, you should now see the name of the YouTube clip open in your browser

Spotify and Rdio are usually great for streaming music. But sometimes the fastest way to find and play a track is via YouTube. Unfortunately, using the dedicated app on your phone or tablet also means you cant do anything else while listening to music and podcasts.

Background streaming was supposed to make its way into the YouTube app last year. But as of February, theres still no sign of it. And with Google launching its All Access streaming service late last year, it doesnt look like it ever will.

While Android users are apparently still out of luck*, those who own an iPhone and the iPad with iOS 7 can use a fairly easy workaround. First, ditch the standalone YouTube app. Instead, open the browser version of whatever YouTube video you want you can use Safari or Chrome and hit play. Once it starts playing, exit the browser by pressing the home button. This will cut off the sound. To start it again, swipe up from the bottom of the screen to bring up Control Center. In the space where you can usually see the name of the iOS or Spotify music track playing, you should now see the name of the YouTube clip open in your browser

If you're jailbroken, there's a tweak that let's you play YouTube videos in the background (the audio of it).

Side note: is anybody else's "Playlist" section completely missing from the side of the YouTube app? Mine is gone. Like I can't view my playlists in the app at all for some reason. It was there yesterday so idk what happened between then and now. Strange.

Spotify and Rdio are usually great for streaming music. But sometimes the fastest way to find and play a track is via YouTube. Unfortunately, using the dedicated app on your phone or tablet also means you can’t do anything else while listening to music and podcasts.

Background streaming was supposed to make its way into the YouTube app last year. But as of February, there’s still no sign of it. And with Google launching its All Access streaming service late last year, it doesn’t look like it ever will.

While Android users are apparently still out of luck*, those who own an iPhone and the iPad with iOS 7 can use a fairly easy workaround. First, ditch the standalone YouTube app. Instead, open the browser version of whatever YouTube video you want — you can use Safari or Chrome — and hit play. Once it starts playing, exit the browser by pressing the home button. This will cut off the sound. To start it again, swipe up from the bottom of the screen to bring up Control Center. In the space where you can usually see the name of the iOS or Spotify music track playing, you should now see the name of the YouTube clip open in your browser

If you're jailbroken, there's a tweak that let's you play YouTube videos in the background (the audio of it).

Side note: is anybody else's "Playlist" section completely missing from the side of the YouTube app? Mine is gone. Like I can't view my playlists in the app at all for some reason. It was there yesterday so idk what happened between then and now. Strange.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Welcome to iMore 😃

Are you signed in?

Also thank you for the tip all help is Welcome on this Forum also feel free to join the conversations and post often 📲